PRIVACY POLICY
Blackouts Direct Privacy Policy
Blackouts Direct (Company number 01449100) (‘We’) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
This policy (together with our terms & conditions and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be stored and processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding use of data and how we will treat it. By visiting www.blackoutsdirect.co.uk you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Policy.
For the purpose of data protection regulations including GDPR and the current Data Protection Act 2018, the data controller is Blackouts Direct, of Westminster House, Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate, Peterborough, PE2 6WA.
Information we may collect from you – and how it is collected
We may collect and process the following data about you:
- Information you give us.You may give us information by filling in forms on our website www.blackoutsdirect.co.uk or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you register on our website, subscribe to our service, search for a product, place an order on our site, participate in discussion boards or other social media functions on our site, enter a competition, promotion or survey and when you report a problem with our site. The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, financial and credit card information, personal description and photograph.
- If you choose to create an account, you will be able to manage your personal data online via your account at www.blackoutsdirect.co.uk . If you do not choose to do so, you will not be able to view or modify this information. If you wish to change any preferences and you have not created an account, please contact Customer Serviceshere.
- Information we collect about you. With regard to each of your visits to our site we may automatically collect the following information: technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform; information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); products you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number.
- Information we receive from other sources. We may receive information about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. In this case we will have informed you when we collected that data that it may be shared internally and combined with data collected on this site. We are also working closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, credit reference agencies) and may receive information about you from them.
Cookies
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. Here is some more information about cookies:
- a cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added, and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.
- We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes.
Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website experience, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.
- You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.
- You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies you may not be able to access all or parts of our website.
- You can read about Google’s Privacy & Terms here.
List of cookies we collect
The table below lists the cookies we collect and what information they store.
| Cookie Name | Cookie Description |
| CART | The association with your shopping cart. |
| CATEGORY_INFO | Stores the category info on the page, that allows to display pages more quickly. |
| COMPARE | The items that you have in the Compare Products list. |
| CUSTOMER | An encrypted version of your customer id with the store. |
| CUSTOMER_AUTH | An indicator if you are currently logged into the store. |
| CUSTOMER_INFO | An encrypted version of the customer group you belong to. |
| CUSTOMER_SEGMENT_IDS | Stores the Customer Segment ID |
| EXTERNAL_NO_CACHE | A flag, which indicates whether caching is disabled or not. |
| FRONTEND | Your session ID on the server. |
| GUEST-VIEW | Allows guests to edit their orders. |
| LAST_CATEGORY | The last category you visited. |
| LAST_PRODUCT | The most recent product you have viewed. |
| NEWMESSAGE | Indicates whether a new message has been received. |
| NO_CACHE | Indicates whether it is allowed to use cache. |
| PERSISTENT_SHOPPING_CART | A link to information about your cart and viewing history if you have asked the site. |
| POLL | The ID of any polls you have recently voted in. |
| POLLN | Information on what polls you have voted on. |
| RECENTLYCOMPARED | The items that you have recently compared. |
| STF | Information on products you have emailed to friends. |
| STORE | The store view or language you have selected. |
| USER_ALLOWED_SAVE_COOKIE | Indicates whether a customer is allowed to use cookies. |
| VIEWED_PRODUCT_IDS | The products that you have recently viewed. |
| WISHLIST | An encrypted list of products added to your Wishlist. |
| WISHLIST_CNT | The number of items in your Wishlist. |
Uses made of the information
We will only collect data and information where it is necessary, fair and lawful to do so and where your consent has been freely given.
We use information held about you in the following ways:
(A) Information you give to us. We will use this information:
- to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us;
- to provide you with information about other goods and services we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about;If you have consented to our using your data for marketing purposes by ticking the Registration Form on the website, then such consent also expressly confirms that you are content to allow your data to be provided to our appointed third party marketing agent which allows us to provide you, or permit selected third parties to provide you, with information about goods or services we feel may interest you. If you are an existing customer, we will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about goods and services similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale or negotiations of a sale to you. If you are a new customer, and where we permit selected third parties to use your data, we (or they) will contact you by electronic means only if you have consented to this.;
- to notify you about changes to our services and goods;
- to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
Information we collect about you. We will use this information:
- to administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
- to improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer; to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
- to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
- as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;
- to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
- to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about goods or services that may interest you or them.
Information we receive from other sources. We may combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We may us this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).
Disclosure of your information
By consenting on the Registration Form, we may share your personal information with any member of our group of companies which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006.
By consenting on the registration form we may share your information with selected third parties including:
- Business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the specific performance of any contract we enter into with them or you.
- Advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others. We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to our advertisers, but we may provide them with aggregate information about our users (for example, we may inform them that 500 men aged under 30 have clicked on their advertisement on any given day). We may also use such aggregate information to help advertisers reach the kind of audience they want to target (for example, women in SW1). We may make use of the personal data we have collected from you to enable us to comply with our advertisers’ wishes by displaying their advertisement to that target audience.
- Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site.
By consenting on the registration form we may disclose your personal information to third parties:
- In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
- If Blackouts Direct or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
- We do not need your express consent to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any Court order or legal obligation, or in order to protect the rights, property, or safety of Blackouts Direct, or its customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Where we store your personal data- and data security
The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your order, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data and consenting to such use, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy Policy. Without your express consent, we cannot provide you with the service you require and fulfilment of your order.
All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.
Input of personal data is at the user’s discretion. We have strict policies and procedures regarding the storage, processing and transmission of your personal data. However, we cannot be held liable of any unauthorised access and use of your personal data which is outside our control.
How long we keep your data for
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and any legal and contractual requirements we are subject to, for example:
- in relation to any guarantee we have offered, we will need to retain your data for the term of the guarantee;
- by law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers, for tax purposes.
We may also be subject to contractual requirements with our external third parties that specify how long we need to store your personal data for. In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: please contact us in this instance. In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Stripe Privacy Policy
In order to be able to offer you Stripe’s payment options, we will pass to Stripe certain aspects of your personal information, such as contact and order details, in order for Stripe to assess whether you qualify for their payment options and to tailor the payment options for you.
General information on Stripe can be found here. Your personal data is handled in accordance with applicable data protection law and in accordance with the information in Stripe’s privacy policy found here.
Your rights
You have the right to withdraw the consent given on the Registration Form at any time and to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes and to ask for data held on you to be deleted. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes.
You can exercise your right to withdraw consent at any time by contacting Blackouts Direct Customer Services at here or telephone +44 (0) 300 303 1033.
We will not sell you data to a third party for marketing or other purposes. If we share your data it is with your consent and we will ensure it is kept safe and secure. From time to time, our website contains links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
In general, you can choose how we communicate with you, but there are certain communications which are necessary for the operation of this website or which we are required to send by law.
Access to information
The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. We will deal with all such requests within a reasonable time.
Changes to our privacy policy
Any changes we may make to the Policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes made.
Contact
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to Blackouts Direct Customer Services at info@blackoutsdirect.co.uk or by calling us on +44 (0) 300 303 1033.
If you are not satisfied with our response, then you may decide to contact the Information Commissioner whose details can be found at www.ico.org.uk